Crystallographic Structure of Xanthorhodopsin, the Light-Driven Proton Pump with a Dual Chromophore
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Crystallographic structure of xanthorhodopsin, the light-driven proton pump with a dual chromophore Hartmut Lueckea,b,c,1, Brigitte Schobertb, Jason Stagnoa, Eleonora S. Imashevab, Jennifer M. Wangb, Sergei P. Balashovb,1, and Janos K. Lanyib,c,1 Departments of aMolecular Biology and Biochemistry, and bPhysiology and Biophysics, and cCenter for Biomembrane Systems, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 Edited by Harry B. Gray, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, and approved September 16, 2008 (received for review July 23, 2008) Homologous to bacteriorhodopsin and even more to proteorho- found recently in the genome of an abundant coastal ocean dopsin, xanthorhodopsin is a light-driven proton pump that, in methylotroph (11) and earlier in the genomes of Gloebacter addition to retinal, contains a noncovalently bound carotenoid violaceous, Pyrocystis lunula (12), and others. The proteins in this with a function of a light-harvesting antenna. We determined the clade exhibit significantly less homology to the proteorhodopsins structure of this eubacterial membrane protein–carotenoid com- (11). For example, 137 residues (50%) are identical in plex by X-ray diffraction, to 1.9-Å resolution. Although it contains Gloeobacter rhodopsin and xanthorhodopsin, but only 60 resi- 7 transmembrane helices like bacteriorhodopsin and archaerho- dues (22%) in proteorhodopsin and xanthorhodopsin. Although dopsin, the structure of xanthorhodopsin is considerably different considerable sequence differences separate xanthorhodopsin from the 2 archaeal proteins. The crystallographic model for this from the proteorhodopsins (Fig. 1), its structure, the first for a rhodopsin introduces structural motifs for proton transfer during eubacterial proton pump, is likely to be relevant to other the reaction cycle, particularly for proton release, that are dramat- eubacterial retinal-based pumps. ically different from those in other retinal-based transmembrane pumps. Further, it contains a histidine–aspartate complex for Results and Discussion regulating the pKa of the primary proton acceptor not present in Xanthorhodopsin was crystallized from bicelles (13), with a type archaeal pumps but apparently conserved in eubacterial pumps. In I arrangement of stacked bilayers. The structure was solved to addition to aiding elucidation of a more general proton transfer 1.9-Å resolution (Table 1). The P1 unit cell contains 2 molecules mechanism for light-driven energy transducers, the structure de- of xanthorhodopsin with a head-to-tail arrangement somewhat fines also the geometry of the carotenoid and the retinal. The close similar to 2-dimensional crystal forms of bacteriorhodopsin (14) approach of the 2 polyenes at their ring ends explains why the and halorhodopsin (15), as well as 3-dimensional crystals of the efficiency of the excited-state energy transfer is as high as Ϸ45%, D85S bacteriorhodopsin mutant (16), sensory rhodopsin II (17, and the 46° angle between them suggests that the chromophore 18), and Anabaena sensory rhodopsin (19). Considering its location is a compromise between optimal capture of light of all function as an ion transporter in the cell membrane, xanthor- polarization angles and excited-state energy transfer. hodopsin is unlikely to form such dimers in the original Salini- bacter cells. carotenoid antenna ͉ energy transfer ͉ retinal protein ͉ salinixanthin ͉ X-ray structure Location and Binding Site of Carotenoid Antenna. The C40 carot- enoid lies transverse against the outer surface of helix F at a Ϸ54° ncreased efficiency of light harvesting by antennae, such as angle to the membrane normal, buried at the protein–lipid carotenoids, is common in photosynthetic membranes, large boundary (Fig. 2A). Its keto-ring is immobilized by residues at I  multiprotein systems that contain tens or hundreds of chro- the extracellular ends of helices E and F and by the -ionone ring mophores. The much simpler retinal-based archaeal proton of the retinal (Fig. 2B) and rotated 82° from the plane of the methyl side chains of its polyene chain and therefore from the pumps bacteriorhodopsin and archaerhodopsin lack antennae; A light collection and proton translocation are performed by a plane of the extended -system (Fig. 2C). The ring C O is not single protein with a single chromophore. Recently, it was shown hydrogen-bonded. The immobilized and acutely out-of-plane orientation of the keto-ring minimizes participation of its 2 that a light-harvesting antenna can function also in a retinal protein. Xanthorhodopsin (1), of the eubacterium Salinibacter double bonds in the conjugated -system and explains the ruber (2), contains a single energy-donor carotenoid, salinixan- well-resolved vibronic bands of the carotenoid, the lack of a red-shift of the absorption bands upon binding, and the strong thin (3), and a single acceptor, retinal, in a small (25 kDa) BIOPHYSICS membrane protein. Because energy transfer is from the short- CD bands in the visible region (5). The relatively rigid polyene is wedged in a slot on the outside of helix F, with one side formed lived S2 carotenoid level (4), there must be a short distance and favorable geometry between the 2 chromophores to account for by the Leu-194 and Leu-197 side chains and the other by the Ile-205 side chain, and its base by Gly-201. The carotenoid its high (40–50%) efficiency. Close interaction of the 2 chro- A mophores is indicated by dependence of the carotenoid confor- glucoside is hydrogen-bonded to the C O and the NH2 of the mation on the presence of the retinal in the protein (1, 5, 6) and amide side chain of Asn-191, as well as NH1 of Arg-184. The spectral changes of the carotenoid during the photochemical transformations of the retinal (1), but, as for the proteorhodop- Author contributions: S.P.B. and J.K.L. designed research; B.S., E.S.I., J.M.W., S.P.B., and sin family of proteins, no direct structural information has been J.K.L. performed research; E.S.I., J.M.W., and S.P.B. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; available (4, 7). Unexpectedly, the crystallographic structure of H.L., J.S., and J.K.L. analyzed data; and H.L., S.P.B., and J.K.L. wrote the paper. xanthorhodopsin we report here reveals not only the location of The authors declare no conflict of interest. the antenna but also striking differences from the archaeal This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. retinal proteins, bacteriorhodopsin and archaerhodopsin. Data deposition: The atomic coordinates have been deposited in the Protein Data Bank, The photocycle of xanthorhodopsin (8) and the functional www.pdb.org (PDB ID code 3DDL). residues in the ion transfer pathway (1) are similar to those of the 1To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], or numerous other eubacterial proton pumps, the proteorho- [email protected]. dopsins (9, 10). Proteins homologous to xanthorhodopsin were © 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA www.pnas.org͞cgi͞doi͞10.1073͞pnas.0807162105 PNAS ͉ October 28, 2008 ͉ vol. 105 ͉ no. 43 ͉ 16561–16565 Downloaded by guest on September 29, 2021 Fig. 1. Sequence alignment of green light-absorbing proteorhodopsin (PR), xanthorhodopsin (XR), and bacteriorhodopsin (BR), reevaluated from the one shown in ref. 1 by using information gained from the diffraction structure. Red, conserved residues in all three; purple, conserved residues in xanthorho- dopsin and bacteriorhodopsin; yellow, conserved residues in xanthorhodop- sin and proteorhodopsins; blue, residues involved with carotenoid binding. Top row of numbers refer to the xanthorhodopsin sequence; bottom row to the bacteriorhodopsin sequence. Underlining indicates residues in transmem- brane helices. Proteorhodopsin sequence refers to a species from Monterey Bay, MBP1 (protein accession No. AAG10475). dependence of the carotenoid spectrum on the retinal is ex- plained by the fact that the retinal -ionone ring is part of the carotenoid binding site (Fig. 2B). The keto-ring of the carotenoid is in the space occupied by Trp-138 in bacteriorhodopsin, one of the bulky side chains that confines the retinal -ionone ring in that protein. In xanthor- Table 1. Data collection and refinement statistics Data collection Beamline 9.1, SSRL, Menlo Park, CA Wavelength, Å 0.979 Fig. 2. Location of salinixanthin (orange) and retinal (magenta) in xanthor- Space group P1 hodopsin. (A) The extended carotenoid is tightly bound on the transmem- Cell dimensions a ϭ 52.7 Å, b ϭ 59.5 Å, c ϭ 59.7 Å brane surface of xanthorhodopsin, traversing nearly the entire bilayer, with ␣ ϭ 76.4°,  ϭ 74.9°, ␥ ϭ 64.1° an inclination of 54° to the membrane normal. Its keto-ring binds in a pocket Resolution range, Å 45.10–1.90 between helices E and F, very near the -ionone ring of the retinal. The angle Total reflections 166,560 between the chromophore axes is 46°. The angle between the planes of their Unique reflections 46,289 -systems is 68°. Horizontal lines indicate the approximate boundaries of the Redundancy 3.6 (3.5)* lipid bilayer. Helices E and F are marked. (B) The binding pocket of the keto Completeness, % 94.1 (85.5)* ring is formed by Leu-148, Gly-156, Phe-157, Thr-160, Met-208, and Met-211,  Mean I/ 8.4 (1.5)* as well as the retinal -ionone ring. (C) The keto-ring of the carotene is rotated 82° out of plane of the salinixanthin-conjugated system and is in van der Waals Rsym,% 5.7 (48.5)* distance of the retinal -ionone and the phenolic side chain of Tyr-207. Refinement Resolution range, Å 45.10–1.90 No. of reflections used 46,278 hodopsin, it is replaced by a glycine. This residue replacement R /R ,%† 24.7/26.5 work free might be the best diagnostic in a sequence for the possibility of Rmsd bonds, Å 0.012 Rmsd angles, ° 1.35 binding a salinixanthin-like carotenoid.